Obama takes back Iowa spotlight

BETTENDORF, Iowa — President Barack Obama stole a bit of the campaign spotlight back from Republican presidential hopefuls Tuesday, touching down in this crucial swing state to talk up a modest jobs success story.

Bracketed by Rep. Michele Bachmann’s entry into the race Monday in Waterloo and Sarah Palin’s arrival for a movie premiere Tuesday, Obama buzzed into the Democratic-leaning eastern end of Iowa to tout job creation at a plant that manufactures jet components.

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“We’ve got the capacity not only to get back to where we were but to get to where we need to be,” Obama told a cheering crowd of factory workers at an Alcoa Inc. plant. “That’s why I ran for president: to get us where we need to be.”

“I know you’ve been seeing a lot of politicians around lately,” the president said. “Something tells me that you may see a few more before February is over. But Iowa, you and I, we go a long way back.”

Obama’s 2008 Iowa Democratic Caucus win was a surprise victory that helped launch him toward the White House — back when the betting was mostly on Hillary Clinton.

In shirt sleeves, Obama spoke urgently of the reasons he ran for president. His quick visit — complete with an unscheduled drop-in at a local lunch counter — rang all the bells of a campaign stop, without technically being one.

Obama largely ignored the Republican field. So did White House aides — at least officially.

“It has absolutely nothing to do with that,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said of the well-timed trip. “We believe that the economic future of this country depends so significantly on advanced manufacturers, so this is designed to highlight a company and a site that is doing good work that is hiring new employees.”

The Alcoa Davenport Works has hired back workers laid off during the recession and recently began adding workers. The president noted that the Bettendorf plant built the wings for Air Force One.

For Obama, Alcoa’s success provided a useful setting to push back against Republican criticism that his policies have not created the jobs he promised — and worse, have even jeopardized jobs.

Mitt Romney said Tuesday that Obama has “failed to create jobs” and favors unions over workers, while Bachmann is campaigning hard on disputed claims that Obama’s signature health care law will cost the nation hundreds of thousands of jobs.